Not being able to go on holidays, this was a great way of escaping to Renaissance Italy. I was looking for a Medici biography, but instead stumbled on this Borgias one, which did the job just fine (except there is a lot more Rome than Florence). As was to be expected, the focus is very much on the rise and papacy of Rodrigo Borgia (Alexander VI) and two of his children Cesare and Lucrezia. But there are appearances by Leonardo da Vinci, Savonarola, the powerful families in Italy (Sforza, Gonzaga, Della Rovere) and the kings of France, Spain and Naples. It is about power, Realpolitik, scheming and politicking – and the Spanish Borjas were good at it – but also about life and death in the late 15th century. It reads easily and is not too thick, so that the pace remains good until the end.